


Flesh and Bone

by MythicWolf



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:27:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25962832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MythicWolf/pseuds/MythicWolf
Summary: Arthur is dying and he is so very scared. Charles lends an ear and together they discover what could've been.
Relationships: Arthur Morgan/Charles Smith
Comments: 6
Kudos: 51





	Flesh and Bone

**Author's Note:**

> I just finished Red Dead Redemption 2 and I cried like a baby. Anyway here's a thousand words of some outlaws being sad and gay.
> 
> Recommended listening: Flesh and Bone by Keaton Henson

"'m dyin', Charles."

The words cut like knives to say. He can see Charles standing there, his stoic demeanor cracking apart.

Charles slumps down on the log where he sits at the edge of the camp. Everyone else is either asleep… or gone. It's all a damn mess.

"Oh, _Arthur_ ," Charles breathes. He covers his face in his hands and lets out a shaky breath. "Arthur..."

Arthur crouches down in front of Charles. "Doctor down in Saint Denis diagnosed me. It's tuberculosis." The words feel strange coming out of his mouth. He's never said that aloud before.

Never admitted that he was dying.

Charles made a choked sound that made Arthur's chest ache even more than it already did. He reached over and touched his wrist.

"'m so sorry, Charles," Arthur rasped. He feels his throat tighten up and forces himself not to break down. He can't.

Charles looks up from his hands and the expression on his face makes Arthur's heart break. It's so far from that quiet strength he had always shown. Instead, all Arthur sees is a broken man. Charles's eyes are glassy with unshed tears, and Arthur is sure he looks the same.

Charles reaches over and touches Arthur's cheek. He can't help but lean unto the touch with a sigh that almost turns into another damn cough. The hand is warm and calloused, an anchor to reality. To everything he is trying to save.

Charles uses his other hand to wipe away the tears that are forming. He takes another breath. "Arthur…"

"I know." Arthur reaches up and covers the hand on his cheek with his own. "I know." He shuts his eyes and focuses on the warmth.

He's scared. Both of them are. They're both terrified fools sitting in a dying camp surrounded by miserable folks following someone who is sending them all to die. 

Charles takes a few deep breaths. He closes his eyes and then opens them again. They have a strange kind of determination in them and it soothes Arthur.

"How long have you got?" Charles asks with a quiet voice. 

Arthur grits his teeth and looks down at the ground. "Not too much longer now. It's gettin' damn hard to do anything 'round here, too."

Charles looks up to the sky. The sun is setting and a few bright stars are winking down upon them. Arthur watches as Charles thinks for a long time. He's not sure how long they both sit there in silence, but Arthur doesn't mind.

He hopes that wherever he ends up after he dies, he gets to remember everything about Charles.

Charles looks back down at Arthur and places a hand on Arthur's knee, gripping it tight. "Perhaps it isn't such a bad thing to know when you will die."

Arthur just sighs. The sigh turns into a really nasty cough that he has to turn away from Charles for, and it ends with him spitting blood on the floor. It makes him sick just looking at it.

"I'm scared, Charles." He wraps his arms around himself. "I'm real scared, but I have to try to make sure everyone gets outta this damn mess." He locks eyes with Charles.

Charles grips Arthur's shoulders. "I will stand with you until the end, then. I promise." His voice is warm and determined, and it makes Arthur feel just a bit better.

"I can't ask you to do that. I'm not a good man." Arthur hides his eyes under the brim of his hat as he looks at his feet.

"You are a good man, Arthur Morgan," Charles says with such confidence that it makes Arthur wonder. 

_Charles never lied to me before. Maybe he ain't now, either._

"I jus' wanna make sure John and his family get out safe," Arthur says instead. His head feels clearer now that he says it all out loud. Now that everything is laid bare to the man he trusts the most.

To the one he loves the most.

Charles must be able to read his thoughts, because he moves his hands to Arthur's back and tugs him into a tight hug.

"I don't wanna _die_ ," Arthur croaks out before burying his head in the crook of Charles's neck. Another admission off of his back.

He holds onto Charles like a lifeline, and maybe he is. Maybe Charles and all of his quiet strength and resolve is the only thing keeping Arthur going.

"I don't want you to die either." Charles is quiet, but his words are no longer shaky.

 _I love you._ Three words he wants to say but isn't sure he should anymore. It feels like it's too late for them. It is too late for anything to happen. What good is a dying man's love confession? 

Arthur pulls back from the embrace and finds Charles trying to search his eyes for something. He looks so, so sad and so hurt.

That look makes up Arthur's mind for him.

He takes a breath.

"I love you," both men confess at the same time.

Arthur covers his mouth with a hand as he registers what Charles just said. Charles's eyes widen and grow watery.

"What-" Arthur's throat closes up as a few damn tears start to fall. "What fools we are." He can't help but think of Mary as he says that.

Charles swallows and nods. "What fools, indeed."

"Damn it all." Arthur reaches forward to press a hand on Charles's chest. His heartbeat is strong and steady, his lungs taking in big, clear breaths of air. "How long?"

"Shady Belle, I think. Probably before then." Charles smiles. "You?"

Arthur can't help but cover his mouth. "Yeah. Me too." _What a goddamn mess._

Arthur feels so happy and miserable inside. Both emotions are so powerful that they just twist and curl up inside him and make it even harder to breathe than it already was. They choke and torture him and he just doesn't know what to do anymore.

Charles just pulls him back into the hug and strokes his hair with a hand. His fingers drag lazily down Arthur's head in a soothing rhythm that leaves him feeling so warm and so incredibly empty.

Of course Charles would be able to cause that.

"I'm a fool," Arthur whispers. "I'm so sorry."

Charles rubs circles on Arthur's back. "It's okay, Arthur. I'm glad we told each other." Before it's too late, he didn't add. It was already too late anyway.

"Charles…" What did Arthur do to deserve him in the end?

"Shh." Charles just holds Arthur tighter.

"I'm sorry." Arthur doesn't know what else to say. There's so much that he wants to let out but he's not sure how to say it. There isn't any time left to say it. "I shouldn't have-"

"It's okay." Charles pulls back to cradle Arthur's head in his hands. They're warm and rough on his face, and he can't help but close his eyes as yet another damn tear rolls down his face. It doesn't feel real.

He doesn't want to die. It's a desperate thought that burns bright inside his chest as he listens to his own ragged breaths mixed with Charles's steady ones. He can't help but wish that he wasn't dying. That he never took that damn debt job for Strauss.

"Arthur…" Charles is frowning. His eyes are big and filled with sorrow that makes Arthur ache inside as something twists his stomach up into knots. He reaches up with a shaky hand to touch Charles.

Charles leans into the touch with a hum. 

"Maybe we can find each other in the next life?" Arthur asks. He sighs and berates himself for even trying to be hopeful.

_What god would ever let me live a peaceful life in the next one? After all the pain I caused?_

"I would like that very much, Arthur Morgan." Charles leans in and presses his lips to Arthur's forehead.

Arthur's breath hitches. He lets himself relax and he ignores the pain in his lungs. He lets himself be.

Arthur knows he's going to die very soon. He knows that he and Charles can't have what they want. He knows that he doesn't want to die.

The image of a stag comes to the forefront of his mind. Its eyes seem to stare right into his soul.

Arthur takes a breath.

_It'll be okay. It will._


End file.
